Biden making final visit as president to the Lowcountry

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – President Joe Biden will spend a good portion of his final full day in office in the Palmetto State.

The visit will affect traffic in the North Charleston and Charleston areas on Sunday morning and into the afternoon. As is typical during a presidential visit, drivers should expect delays because of road closures as the president’s motorcade makes its way through the area.

The White House has not released specific times for the president’s visit. However, former state Sen. Marlin Kimpson, whom Biden appointed in 2023 to serve on the U.S. Trade Advisory Committee, released some details about the plan earlier this week.

Air Force One is set to land at Joint Base Charleston Sunday morning, but White House officials did not specify a time.

Biden’s first stop is expected to be Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, Kimpson said.

Arriving at the Joint Base Charleston Sunday morning, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who represents the state’s Sixth Congressional District, said he was not surprised that Biden wanted to spend part of his final full day in office, since South Carolina played a big role in Biden securing the Democratic nomination for president.

Clyburn praised Biden’s accomplishments during that single term in the White House.

“On substance, there’s no president since Lyndon Johnson that’s produced what Joe Biden has,” Clyburn said. “Stylistically, he doesn’t fir the time within which we live. He’s not the soundite guy. He is much more the substance guy.”

After the church service, Biden is then expected to take a private tour of the International African American Museum in downtown Charleston. That tour is not open to the public.

From there, Biden is expected to return to the nation’s capital.

The visit comes the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday designed to honor the Civil Rights leader, who would have turned 96 last Wednesday. It is also the day before Inauguration Day, on which Donald Trump will become the 47th president.

It’s a rare year in which both events fall on the same day. Inauguration Day is always Jan. 20. MLK Day falls on the third Monday of January. Both events coincide on the same day this year.

Biden visited Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston in what was then a campaign stop on Jan. 8, 2024. He spoke about the massacre of nine parishioners at the church nearly a decade ago on June 17, 2015.

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